I don't know why Rachel thought it'd come down to the Numbers rounds. James even took one over Ahmed and it still came down to the buzzer round (to which Ahmed was always playing). Congratulations on the winner for such strong play.
I'm here for the numbers but I simply can't let that go uncommented. While Rachel makes even that rag look passable it is still a garish dress that should have stayed in the second hand store it was undoubtedly purchased from.
It's interesting how different the player profiles are from France. 95% of contestants are absolute garbage in the number rounds, but then you have a few - usually the four-large enjoyers -, as well as some RU-vid commenters, who pull off awesome stuff that Frenchies never do. Perhaps because our rounds are entirely random and therefore four-larges are very rare, and therefore scarcely practiced. Not to mention Rachel who fills Benedicte and Bertrand's roles at the same time in a splendid show of beauty-and-brains.
For the 644, you can get to 650 using 25x26, but will only get to 645 that way. So the logical next step is to go 24x27, which gets you to 648, and this time, you are left with the needed 4.
In the first numbers round, I was pleased to see that I beat Rachel to a solution in a numbers round, because I had this solution within the 30 seconds: 50 x 25 = 1250 100 - 75 = 25 1250 + 25 + 9 = 1284 1284 / 2 = 642 In the second round, I like to solve low-target one-large problems as "five small", and here it was possible: 7 x 6 x 4 = 168 168 + 3 = 171 With the 25, you could also do a solution based on factorization (19 x 3^2 = 171): 25 - 6 = 19 7 - 4 = 3 19 x 3 x 3 = 171 In the third round, I saw James' solution for 290, but there is no other solution and no solution for 286. In the fourth round, I also factored the target (23 x 7 x 2^2 = 644) and saw the contestants' solution, as well as these ones: 3 - 1 = 2 25 - 2 = 23 23 x 7 x 4 = 644 25 - 9 = 16 7 + 3 = 10 16 x 10 = 160 160 + 1 = 161 161 x 4 = 644 Plus this one not based on factoring: 25 - 1 = 24 24 x 9 x 3 = 648 648 - 4 = 644
For the first round, it is tricky. Although the target is divisible by 6, it is not possible to come up with a factoring solution. The trick to solve the problem is using the fact that 642 = 625 + 17, as it is noticed that 17 = (25 + 9) / 2. The remaining task is to make 625, which is easy as 625 = 25 x 25 = 25 x 50 / 2. Hence, I got the same as Rachel's solution. The second round is an easy round. in addition to the contestants' solution, it is found that the target is divisible by 3 and 9, so some factoring solutions can be obtained: 25 - 6 = 19 7 - 4 = 3 19 x 3 x 3 = 171 6 - 4 = 2 25 x 2 = 50 50 + 7 = 57 57 x 3 = 171 It is also possible to use only small numbers: 7 x 4 x 6 = 168 168 + 3 = 171 Also, another easy solution that first popped up in my mind is: 25 x 6 = 150 3 x 7 = 21 150 + 21 = 171 The third round is an impossible round. I got the same as James' solution. The fourth round is another easy round, since it is immediately noticed that the target is divisible by 4 and 7, another factoring solution can be: 25 - 3 + 1 = 22 23 x 7 = 161 161 x 4 = 644
